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RV park faces discrimination charges

Photo by David WebbThe Department of Housing and Urban Development charge an Athens RV park owner with discrimination against this transgender couple now living in Seven Points. Pictured (from left) is Roxanne Joganik and Darlina Anthony.

HUD acts on new policy banning discrimination against LGBT people

By David Webb
The Monitor Correspondent
SEVEN POINTS–The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a charge of discrimination in August against an Athens RV park owner after investigating a complaint by a transgender woman and her female partner, who now live in Seven Points.
The action is believed to be one of the first few investigations by HUD to proceed to the trial stage since the federal agency adopted a new policy in March 2012, banning discrimination against LGBT people.
If the charge of discrimination is upheld in a federal administrative hearing or a U.S. federal district court the park owner could be fined $16,000 and be required to reimburse the complainants for damages. The damages could include moving expenses and compensation for emotional distress.
Roxanne Joganik and Darlina Anthony filed the complaint in the summer of 2012 against George and Amy Toone and In Toone Services, LLC, owners of Texan RV Park on Highway 175 West in Athens. The complainants alleged that the Toones discriminated against them on the basis of sex on May 15, 2012, and again on Aug. 18, 2012.
“They said they weren’t going to have my kind living in the park,” Joganik said during an interview at her Seven Points residence.
After the park owner refused to accept a rent payment from them and successfully pursued an eviction in now-deceased Justice of the Peace Henry S. Ashford’s court in Henderson County, Joganik offered to move to her son’s residence so Anthony could remain, according to the couple. The park owner again refused to accept the rent payment, they said.
“He told me that he didn’t like my kind either,” Anthony said. “At that point it became a dual case,” Joganik added.
The pair amended the complaints in February 2013 to add charges of harassment and intimidation after the Toones, who are represented by Dallas lawyer Casey Erick, allegedly “sought and assisted in the publication of articles on a campground management website,” according to the complaint outlined in HUD documents. The articles allegedly contained “inaccurate and negative information about complainant Joganik for the purpose of harassing and intimidating her” in violation of federal law, according to the allegations in the documents.
The Toones denied the allegations of discrimination, claiming that the complainants’ recreational vehicle did not “constitute a dwelling” and should be exempt from the federal housing law. They claimed the owners of the recreational vehicles in the park were not tenants, but instead guests.
The respondents also maintained that Joganik and Anthony were asked to leave the park because Joganik would not sign the park rules presented to him, the pair disrupted other guests’ use of the park and that Joganik had killed park wildlife.
Federal officials found “reasonable cause” of “discriminatory housing practices” by the park owner in the case, according to HUD documents in the possession of the complainants. But the officials rejected the complaint against the owner’s wife and the allegations of intimidation and harassment.
Joganik and Anthony said they lived in the park and paid $375 monthly rent from April 2011 to May 2012 without incident. Another person owned the park during that time, but Joganik never dressed as a woman in the common areas, they said. Joganik asked to be allowed to dress as a woman in the park, but permission was denied, according to the documents.
When Toone bought the park in May, Joganik asked him for permission to dress as a woman, and he also denied the request, Joganik said.
“I told him because I wanted to come out,” Joganik said. “It was my right to live as a transgender person.”
Subsequently, the owner circulated a list of new park rules for residents to sign. The rules included a provision